Maximizing Creativity and Effectiveness

Rhett 0:12

Welcome back to another episode of Armchair Authentic , a podcast with Rhett and Justin . It is our hope to steward our conversations in a way that serves you on your journey . Now , today , justin and I , we had a lot of fun . In fact , our conversation started around the idea of having an episode about nothing , and then it turned into maximizing your effectiveness through managing your creativity , and that all came about through having a debrief about this show . In fact , even our conversation led to things like anchored lament . What does that mean ? Well , we'll tell you more about that in today's conversation , but before we do , I want to take a moment and welcome those who may be new to the podcast today . Man , it's great to have you along , in fact , the way we like to say it is welcome to the podcast family . Man , it's great to have you along , in fact , the way we like to say it is welcome to the podcast family . If you haven't already followed us on our social media , you can do so at Armchair Authentic on Instagram and Facebook , or you can follow us on X at Armchair Auth Pod , that's Armchair Auth A-U-T-H Pod P-O-D . All right , everybody .

Rhett 1:26

Now onto the conversation that started out about nothing but actually led to something . Here we go . Well , justin , here we are in a new setup in my home . Turned a fourth bedroom into a podcast studio , slash home gym . It's got a good feel . No need to set up anymore .

Rhett 1:48

Yeah it's been really nice . Got a new desk that's set up to where it's one of those stand desks like you can kind of adjust it and go up and down , which is it's moving as you talk .

Rhett 1:57

Yeah , it's a lot of fun . For those who don't know , we have been recording , I would say , 99% of our episodes , outside of the one that we did with Pastor Randy this past one and one in Tampa . They've been all here at my house In the living room . We've taken my dining room tables , set it up in the living room and tried to do everything we could to make it amazing .

Justin 2:20

And now we're in some new digs . It was fun coming in today and just not having to set up anything . It reminds me of the world where you have to set up and take down if you're doing any kind of event , yeah , and you finally get to come into a space that's yours . It felt like that , you know , minus the weightlifting bench behind us , but we utilize that too .

Rhett 2:40

I utilize it every day , every week , you know so , me and my , you know . Hey , by the way , I think you know it's interesting . Some of you may be wondering cause it's so funny . Uh , when I'm in conversations with people , they're like oh man , you know I've been keeping up , you know you've lost 10 pounds , and so forth . How are you doing that ? And , uh , dude , I've been a stalemate on my weight loss .

Justin 3:09

Um , dude like , lost 10 pounds really quick , kicked it down to 13 . And for the past three to four weeks I just stalemate , plateaued at 13 pounds . Yeah , but see , I think that your habits are better now than they've ever been . Oh , so much better . So there's something that's forget the weight loss .

Rhett 3:18

Yeah .

Justin 3:18

I mean , you look great , by the way . Well , thank you . But there's the habits you have the walking , the discipline , the weightlifting , the rowing , the stuff that you've been doing consistently . Now it might be getting mixed up with some muscle mass that's growing too , because muscle's heavy .

Rhett 3:32

I appreciate you saying that . I actually think that too . I mean , I'm noticing that my clothes are fitting a little bit different these days . But I think it's interesting how you do hit a plateau , and I've been looking at this , like you know . If you want to look through the spiritual sense , I mean , there's always these different plateaus we hit in life . Um , and for me right now , I'm kind of like , looking at this and going , okay , was my goal to lose the weight or was my goal to create healthier habits ? What was the goal ? And , honestly , I do have this 25 by 25 . And , as I've kidded before , um , if I don't hit it , it's okay . As long as I'm setting myself up for healthy rhythms , sustaining my life , and I have been doing it . I'm very you know , I hate , I kind of almost hesitant to even talk about it , because you know I don't want to fail here in three weeks and be like oh man , I crashed and burn on this one .

Rhett 4:16

I have I've gotten better habits . I'm waking up earlier and it's interesting , once you kind of get your kind of get in rhythm , your body wakes up craving hey , it's time to get out , it's time to go walk , you know and every day I've been walking um up to three and a half miles , sometimes four when I'm feeling it um , working out on the weights twice , uh , twice a week .

Rhett 4:36

And so , yeah , I feel I feel a lot better and I've got a lot more energy , and I'm going to bed a lot earlier too because my body's just exhausted . So , like I'm an old man and I don't care , like eight , eight , 45 at night , nine o'clock , I'm in bed and loving every minute of getting as much sleep as I can .

Justin 4:52

And at school time , because you know we got the kids mine started school at the time of the recording .

Rhett 4:58

I mean really this week , both of them did , or you know all four , but both schools that they go to . It's cranked up and it feels like we had a touch of fall last night and it wasn't melting you from where we're at in Birmingham , alabama . Well , when you go from like the 90 , 95 , 94 , and you get that drop to where ?

Justin 5:18

the high is like 87 .

Rhett 5:19

It's glorious , it's like whoa , it is , it's fall in Alabama .

Justin 5:21

Let's go these are the best times to live in Alabama . It's the fall time and the spring time , because you're getting the best , probably some of the best weather there is anywhere in the country . And so here we are fall time , football . We are very , very close , a matter of days away from the kickoff .

Rhett 5:36

When's the kickoff ?

Justin 5:37

Well , if you're listening to this recording . Really , week one will kick off this upcoming weekend , which is September . August 31 . Week one will kick off this upcoming weekend , which is september uh august 31st .

Rhett 5:47

August 31st , alabama and auburn sec . All the above .

Justin 5:51

Yeah , it gets started , it's um but you show .

Rhett 5:53

You can tell how much I'm really into it when you're asking the question .

Justin 5:56

They have what's called week zero and that's where you'll have a few football teams play . I think florida state , some well-known brands are playing , but not a lot . Okay . Then there's the week where everybody kicks off . Okay , that's when it feels like the seasons really began .

Rhett 6:10

Oh , we're going to get into some conversations once this season kicks off , it's going to be a lot of fun , yeah .

Justin 6:15

When you're hungry , you'll take any kind of any kind of food . Hunger is the best marinade , as we've said before . So any football right now is good , but it's going to kick off , and then , for those around the country where NFL is king and in the next you know couple of weeks , that's going to be kicking in as well .

Rhett 6:30

Well , before we hit record , Justin and I were sitting here just kind of talking through . We've done a few interviews which you know you'll hear more about in , you know , in coming episodes we're really excited about . But we're sitting here as leaders trying to always trying to figure out how we can get better , not just in our communication , but just in our life and our family and our finances and even the way we steward this podcast , steward our energy , our creativity , as well as our critical times where we're thinking more through the mindset of just like dot , I cross a T , not not very emotionally , you know , driven in those moments , but just more like , you know , uh , analytical and uh , so you know how . Seinfeld you mentioned this . It's interesting I like I didn't , I'm not a Seinfeld buff , but I'm , I enjoy the episodes whenever I see them . So like I'm not hardcore and being able to , to , to go from beginning to end , but I think the premise of the show was that it was really about nothing .

Justin 7:29

Yeah , they even made a show about their own show . Can you imagine it's a show about ?

Rhett 7:34

nothing yeah .

Rhett 7:36

It's so funny . It's . So , as we're sitting here thinking about you know , what kind of conversations can we have to share with our audience , we began to like what if we start talking about what we're talking about right now ? Because I do think it's interesting , especially as a leader , when you begin to recognize where am I most creative in my days and where am I more analytical in my day . Because we just spent the good portion of our time doing an interview and then we kind of took a break , went out to eat , and then we're sitting here again trying to just kind of figure out all right , how how can we steward our story and our conversations to help people .

Justin 8:10

Right . Well , and we're , you know we're such great friends , even on armchair , authentic . Yeah , there's the conversation that really still can't hit the airwaves . Is so invigorating to be in conversations with each other like that . But we were about to hit the record button . We thought , well , we just put a lot of energy into that other conversation that you can't put over the airwaves right now . But , man , what do we want to talk about ? And it just got us thinking . As Rhett was talking about energy , I've been doing some research just with different people who keep the energy up with the brain , the thought , the freshness of , of , just their creativity , all these things . And I was learning there's a lot of podcasts based on their style . They they will begin actually recording their episodes in the afternoon .

Rhett 8:59

Well , because at the time of the recording it's 2 35 central standard time right now .

Justin 9:03

That's right , and so , and so it's afternoon for us , but right now what we've learned

Optimizing Energy and Creativity Levels

Justin 9:08

is we have different forms on the podcast that you guys are experiencing . You're experiencing more because we have guests very much recurring coming up . There's different flows for those , and so we're literally sitting here hitting the record button and we decided let's just kind of talk this out as we have our podcast .

Rhett 9:27

So we're literally this is us having a real conversation , and all our conversations are real , but like , just just to be honest , like we're flushing this out right now , we're shooting from the hips . Yeah , so Justin and I are very at least the way we work . We're up early in the morning and then we're here at the studio , you know around 745 , 8 am , and we're beginning to record and these kind of things on a certain day of the week , sometimes different days and what we're noticing and this is what I was telling you was I found like I'm more creative in the morning time and I'm able to think a little bit more creatively , be a little bit more sharp , be a little bit more on point , at least for me , by the time we're hitting record in the morning . And since we just did this interview , do we want to say who the interview was with ? Cause ? We'll talk about it here a little bit .

Rhett 10:09

So we just uh , we just finished having an episode recording with Matt Kaplan .

Justin 10:13

Yes .

Rhett 10:13

And for those who don't know Matt Kaplan uh , he's hit the pinnacle of success , uh , with Broadway musicals in New York city . He's also a family friend , not family friend , he's my family friend , but he's your cousin .

Justin 10:25

He's my first cousin and you'll hear about him soon in an episode but yeah he's actor through and through clinical of Broadway in a play called Rent . For many years did the national tours . But yes , we had a great , great combo with him .

Rhett 10:41

Yeah , it was awesome and we look forward to having that conversation as we edit that and have that prepared for you here in the coming weeks . But all that to say , we were on the phone with him for at least two hours . Now will the conversation be that long ? Probably not , but all that to say , there was a lot of mental energy , there was a lot of creative energy in that , as we're asking questions and kind of getting to learn his story and the grit and grind behind all of that . And so then we go out to lunch , we come back , we're sitting here and I'm like just that moment of like I don't know if that's the insulin type , blood sugar , I don't know but coming , we ate Milo's and didn't overeat .

Justin 11:15

just ate enough Come here and now we're in state Birmingham Alabama .

Rhett 11:19

And you probably go to the grocery store in any state and you see a tea called Milo's sweet tea or unsweet . That is based off a restaurant born out of Birmingham , alabama , that we grew up on . Yeah , and it's so good , and whether you love it or hate it , it's just we love it . So it's just who we are .

Justin 11:35

Yeah , it's usually the in and out fans who down it , and it's like really is yours that great ?

Rhett 11:39

It really comes down to what a burger in and out in my lows , yeah , and I'm not going to make fun of in and out .

Rhett 11:45

It's fine , it's okay , y'all being pretty , y'all hyping that thing up a lot , so down my miles you know , listen , I mean , I know we have people on the Pacific Northwest and West listening to this and and very different of mine are going to argue that point . But it's like did you order it this way ? I'm like I ordered it how it was on the menu , bro . And they're like , well , you got to order the secret menu . I'm like what the crap man .

Rhett 12:09

I mean , like I'm supposed to know about a secret menu in a restaurant . Like if your best food that you serve is on a secret menu , it's not on your board . I'm sorry .

Justin 12:19

You know like you're not saying a lot about your food .

Rhett 12:23

You're kind of saying that , well , we're all for this , but we got a better thing over here . I'm like whatever . So , anyways , I know I just lost a lot of people there . But uh , you know , the point is just don't make fun of Milo . Just don't make fun of Milo . We're not going to make fun of In-N-Out . We're not going to make fun of Whataburger . Yeah , we appreciate the regions . This take up residence in our beautiful home of birmingham , alabama , who came from other states and ridiculed milo . That's true . That's true , that's who we're really talking to . So , but milo's , whatever your food choice .

Justin 12:53

That's not the point of this conversation and it will not help ret lose the the 25 pounds he's trying no , so we're gonna have to keep that meal very , very light .

Rhett 13:02

But all all of that , to say like we're sitting here after a meal and we're kind of like , oh , reality is a little tired , a little worn out in my mind , is not ? You know , obviously we're talking about food , the way we are like it's not as sharp , and so we're thinking like , okay , as leaders , how do we , how do we observe what's happening , to where we can look at it and go , how can we get better ? So , as we were talking about this , we're thinking about doing more of the interview .

Justin 13:26

So now we're getting back to the combo we didn't have , we didn't have right we just said , let's just do it on our podcast . We'll make an episode about nothing .

Rhett 13:34

Yeah , so here's our conversation . Is Justin , like , what do you think about us moving instead of doing our interviews with incredible people across the country or even here in the house , instead of doing that early in the morning ? What would it look like if we kind of swapped that ? Because , honestly , the person we're interviewing it's not like they're going to have to use a lot of creative energy . They're answering questions based off their life , so they're already going to know this , absolutely Right .

Rhett 14:00

And so it really doesn't . It shouldn't matter as much as far as the time of day that they're answering these questions . So for us , instead of us expending all our energy on the front end and then on the back end having , you know , kind of having to muster up more strength , yeah , what if we just came out the gate in the morning and decided , let's do the most creative energy upfront go have our little break , do a little lunch , whatever it might be . Come . Go have our little break , do a little lunch , whatever it might be , come back and then , when we have people we're interviewing or having conversations with via Zoom , we already have our questions , we already know it's a conversation that's somewhat easy to have and we do that on the back end . What do you ?

Justin 14:36

think , because we batch record , we're trying to be better about getting enough episodes in advance , because it allows us to have margin when life hits our work life , the stuff that we have to be in and give priority to . I like the idea because and that's when you said that I thought why have we not even thought about that yet ? Because we do need to have a lot of creative energy and in the morning we are awake , we're buzzing with just vision and we like to keep this not pre-planned . So it's important for the integrity of this podcast . We want to be able to come in and just have our little pre-creative meeting . It works a lot better in the morning .

Justin 15:18

So I do think that would probably be the best because , like you said , if we're interviewing somebody , we're inquiring about them . It doesn't take a lot of energy and if you were interviewing me , I can jump right in and get excited because I'm talking about my life , yeah . So , yeah , you're being a good steward of energy . I think that would be wise of us to consider and I guess we'll keep the podcast scheduled that we've already committed with people . Yeah . But I almost text him and said , hey , can we do afternoon , but we'll just kind of stay put . Yeah , I like the idea , man .

Rhett 15:49

Well , you know , you don't know what you don't know , and so I guess what I'm trying to say here the leadership principle is always being aware , and sometimes you don't know till you're in a moment to where you can look back . And I think you just got to open up yourself to debrief even the things that seem to be working , and I think that's what we do , and we've accomplished a lot of different things and make things better , because we've asked the right questions and I think we're just applying to this conversation is just thinking out loud going . Okay ,

Understanding Energy and Creativity Patterns

Rhett 16:19

you know , we're trying to get better and to make this as good as we can , but also sustain our energy and steward our time in a way that you know really speaks to our energy levels throughout the day , and had we not done what we did today , we probably wouldn't know . So here we are and I say , hey , why not try it so we might have another conversation going ? Yeah , we tried it , but we still felt the same way , you know .

Justin 16:41

I don't know . Well , it's just testing different , just effort . It's just testing different methods out , see , see , and even me trying to talk right now , that's what I'm saying . It really is Right .

Rhett 17:01

Yeah , just your emotions , but your energy , and realize that God's made you a certain way and , leaning into the moments of going , I feel a little bit more tired at this time of day . We'll write that down and if that becomes consistent , well then you know . Okay , if there's some big rock items that are very important for me to take care of , where do I need those big rock items to live on my to-do list so that I can accomplish that at the maximum effectiveness , if you will ?

Justin 17:29

Yeah , I've heard like um Kerry Newhoff , this great leadership podcaster . I feel like I've heard him mention something about different zones like a green zone , yellow zone , red zone That'd be a cool way to put it . Yeah , one of my favorite things going to a cafe somewhere and spending hours . If I wake up early and I can hit a cafe at six , 7am and give myself three hours let's just say three I can do a day's worth of work when I'm having to lock in and , creativity Matter of fact , I could probably do days upon days Like I can knock two to three days worth of work when I put the right stuff .

Justin 18:26

I can write so focused when it comes to writing words or coming up with a plan or creating a class or a lecture . But when it comes to the afternoon stuff , when I have to have some phone calls , I tend to put those in the afternoon because it just doesn't take a lot from me . As a matter of fact , if I'm at that cafe , I know that there's a garden or there's some kind of a walking trail . If it's a call that I'm just going to be listening and giving some guidance , I'll then go walk the trail as I do the phone call . So it's learning how to put different things in different spaces and walking . It's really about just thinking about it . Maybe you're sitting where you are , you're running or whatever you're doing , and you've not thought about that because we can just get locked in on . This is a schedule . This is how work has to look .

Justin 19:19

This is the nine to five who somebody else made up that wasn't that didn't get created in Genesis . But we're trying to operate according to how we've been conditioned and with me I always try to encourage myself think outside the box . How can you do this in a way that you know brings you energy ? So back to Kerry Newhoff . When he says that I get what he's saying because I can fill those zones in my life of knowing when I'm my best and what that best is and what category .

Rhett 19:48

And that's why I work out in the morning and I know everybody has listen I am naturally a person who would stay up till midnight , 1am as a creative artist , if you will . That's my most natural bent . Okay , yes , but , like , as I've gotten older , I've realized that , you know , can't necessarily live that type of lifestyle with what I'm , with the season of life that I'm in . And so I have learned and just didn't start overnight . But just starting is like if I take care of myself first and I know that sounds very selfish , but it's okay to be , it's not selfish right .

Rhett 20:25

It's making sure that if I'm not taking care of myself so that's my physical health and my soul then I have nothing to give my family or nothing to give anybody else . And so I've reprioritized me to put myself first in making sure my soul is healthy and my physical health , and we're creating those rhythms . And so what I found is the best time for me is in the morning , because when I've tried to do that in the afternoon , it never happens .

Justin 20:52

It's like a big rock .

Rhett 20:53

And I'm like , well , I'll just , you know , do all my stuff and then when I get home I'll go to walk or whatever . And there's always stuff happening on the tail end of your day and you're already tired , it's the last thing you want to do . And so that's when I'm like , no , no , I . What you put first how it blesses the rest of your day . And so when I say I take care of me , I'm taking care of me so that I can , that I have something to offer other people , cause if I don't value me enough , then I don't value others . So , like I'm not doing any good to anybody If I'm not making sure my soul and my physical health is taken care of because I want to live as long as I can I recognize walking and working out , it's not going to .

Rhett 21:32

You know , there are what are those percentages of percentage of people live longer , right , I mean , anything can happen , yeah , right . But like , at the end of the day , you know I do want to , if I want to practice what I preach and I want to steward things . Well , I'm just trying to do this reset . But what I am noticing is that my energy level and creativity level is so much higher on the beginning of the day up to noon and then after that it starts kind of trickling off and trailing . So it helps me to be aware and when I'm aware , I'm able to then apply and hopefully manage my day , steward my day in a way that not only honors God but honors others and get more accomplished in less time . Yeah , I think that's the point . It's like it's good . Have you ever sat down at a computer in the end of the day or whatever you're most not creative or whatever you look at the screen , you're like , oh God , it's been an hour and I haven't gotten nothing done .

Justin 22:20

But in the morning it's like dude , I knocked out five things in one hour when not to work or do something . Because even with me , when I edit these podcasts Like I'll go through just for some of you guys with our creative process , Rhett's usually handling all the socials . He's usually getting all this kind of dumped into the right place where we keep all of our files . I then take it out from that and I'll go through and I edit just to make sure it feels right and unnecessary things we can move , but yet we don't want to lose the authenticity . I do that well , not late at night , but I can do that in the evening pretty well , because my mind's locked in and I'm enjoying listening what we came up with . Like you were saying exercise , I can get up and run without eating and just get some water .

Rhett 23:05

Yeah .

Justin 23:05

And I feel on top of the world .

Rhett 23:06

Yeah .

Justin 23:07

When I don't get to run in the morning and I come into the afternoon , I've already got whatever I've eaten for lunch , it's just all in me and you're just tired and I go for the same run at the same pace and I feel like I'm about to die . And so it makes me realize , oh , I do not enjoy this . Or it makes me have to go through the grueling process of realizing I'm not enjoying this , which then , if I learn my lesson , if I can get it in the morning , I need to . It's better in the afternoon than not doing it . But if I can get it in the morning , once again it's better too . So it does help you with the prioritization , Because even for artists out there and you're writing songs in the mornings , I can still think clearly .

Justin 23:53

But there are certain modes of music . I let it marinate . And at nighttime , when the muse you've ever heard the muse comes out . When you awaken the muse , that's the inspirational force that's around us . If you study the artistic side , that's what the muse is . We call that the Holy Spirit .

Justin 24:10

But the muse when the muse comes out at night , it's like you get in that almost you know what I'm talking about . If you're in this creativity . It's just crazy . You feel in a different realm , a different place , and you come up with creation that you can't do in your right mind , but then you never go with it . You got to wake up the next morning and put it through the filter to make sure you're not crazy .

Rhett 24:34

That's not as cool as I thought it was last night , that's not really what .

Justin 24:37

I believe that was a good moment of David writing a lament in the Psalms , that's going to be between me and the Lord . I'm not saying that out loud to anybody , but it was the process , because that moment created something . So in my fresh thinking again I cleaned that up a little , but that still would never have come had it not come in those nighttime hours . I think it's interesting .

Rhett 25:00

If you read the Psalms or you see David complaining oh God , life sucks . You didn't really say that , but it says that in his modern language .

Justin 25:07

I kind of want to die .

Rhett 25:11

I feel like where have you been ? You know you've left me and life is horrible . Everybody's out to attack me . And then , all of a sudden , it's like , okay , now that I got that out of my system . Then he turns over . But God , you are sovereign , you are holy , you're majestic , you're my creator , and who am I to question anything ? You're always going to take care of me . I've seen your goodness , I've seen your , all of those wonderful things . And it's interesting because , uh , you know I'm not , I'm nowhere near to the journaling that you are by any stretch of the imagination . So like , in fact , I looked at 2023 , I think I maybe had one entry in 2023 .

Rhett 25:43

So that was a rest year , that was a very big rest year for me and I felt like I missed a lot of moments I could have written down . But you know , 2022 , 2021 , I went through and I read some of those and I was like , you know , there are moments where I'm like , oh man , I felt like David , it's like all my writings . I'm like very lamentful , like you know , who am I ? Where are you ? What's going on ?

Rhett 26:02

Those kinds of things , but I always flipped it . I was like , but God , I trust in you and I know you've got a plan , I know you've got a future and even though I can't see what's coming up , I know you see it . And so , as I was reading the other day , I was like , oh my gosh . I was reflecting on some of these past entries and I'm just so grateful because now I am in a place where I'm going wow , I'm on the other side of that faith . Whenever I do start writing , wherever I am emotionally and if it's in a place of toil or , you know , lament , if you will it always comes out that way and then I feel better and then I then I kind of reflect and I remember God , not that I forgot him , but it's like you need this release you need this place of muse , you need to be able to throw up everything , whether it's out loud or on paper , and once you do , it's kind of like , oh , I've got this release of these toxins of just reality and humanity and brokenness .

Rhett 26:54

But then it's like , now that that's out , now I'm at a place of going , but , lord , you're , you're so good and even though I don't know what's happening and I may be confused and I may be overwhelmed , god , I just I know who you are and I know who I'm not , and I'm going to trust you and I'm going to , you're going to see this thing through .

Justin 27:10

And they always tend to be that way .

Justin 27:12

Yeah , I love how you throw that back into trust . And there's a writer named Julia Cameron . Absolutely love her writing , but she has something called the morning pages . She believes they need to be written in the morning . I mean , she's a heavy believer in people who say , no , I got to write at night . She's like no , you need to do these in the morning . It needs to be the first thing you do . Whatever your morning time is , whatever your work schedule , whatever you call morning , it needs to be the first thing .

Rhett 27:37

Writing on reflecting on what happened the past day . Not necessarily , no , it's just writing out what , literally you .

Justin 27:44

This isn't going

Authenticity and Emotional Expression

Justin 27:45

to be turned into some major composition or the next New York Times bestseller . This composition or the next New York times bestseller . Okay , this is getting stuff out of your just inside your writing . It might be a happy day , but next day it might be your frustrations . You were getting it out because there's something in the psychology side of that . I'm a big believer in it . There's something about it when you can get this stuff out .

Justin 28:07

But what I like about the anchor that you're talking about from our beliefs is but at the end of the day , we trust that can turn off a lot of people who have grown up or they've encountered the church and everything is you're living your best life , everything's wonderful . You don't ever get to hear what people are going through . Everything is like , if you're going through a downtime , it's like , no , god is triumphant and he's victorious and everything is this and it's like , yes , he is , but people are going through their reality and what you're doing , mr Christian , is you're discounting the Psalms and what you're saying right now . You're not giving any credit that David went through hell on earth . He did and he wrote it out . He did not hold back . He used words that if we want to look it up in the Greek it's probably four-letter words we'd use today , but he did not hold back . He was going through anguish , through agony , through anxiety , at different times , but he went back to the anchor .

Justin 29:05

You said , rhett , it ends with trust in God . There's something powerful there when you can reach that level of just being real , because there's people who have turned their back on the church but if they saw that they might say , okay , I can get behind that , because that echoes exactly how I feel . I feel lonely , but they unfortunately might not have the anchor to say I trust . Therefore , they just stay in anguish and anxiety and they feel hopeless and the light at the end of the tunnel that we all need . And it is there because God is real and he is always present . He's an ever-present help in times of trouble . There's so much to be gained if we could just be honest with people and be honest number one with ourselves and stop escaping into a reality . Yeah , it's not real .

Rhett 29:56

Yeah , and it's okay to be human . I think people forget that Christ was human . He was a human being and he led by example . He hurt , he took on every pain , everything that you'll ever experience . He went through Sorrow . You know Jesus grieved . I think many people look at grief . Oh , you know they're in a better place , it's going to be okay . No , let somebody grieve it hurts , get out .

Rhett 30:18

You know , like we're not meant to carry that type of emotion in us and hold it in and try to suppress it . Yes , because when we're trying to suppress things , it just it makes it worse . And so we've got to be able to be a Christ follower and understand that there is joy . The joy of the Lord is my strength , but it's OK if you're going through hell and you need to grieve . You need to grieve Like we're called to grieve . Jesus wept it's the shortest verse in the Bible , but I think there should be a big Selah pause after that to realize that Jesus weeped alongside those who were weeping . He lost a friend he knows exactly what it's like to lose a best friend who's been with him a long time , you know and he weeped because he felt sorrow and he felt grief .

Justin 31:07

Did he ?

Rhett 31:08

weep , he weeped , he wept .

Justin 31:10

He wept .

Rhett 31:11

He wept . That's what's , yeah , but like weeping Our vocabulary weeped , sorry , I was just training . Did I say weeped ? I didn't correct you the first time , well , correct you the first time .

Justin 31:18

Second time I did W-E-E-P-E-D Weeped . Is that not a word ?

Rhett 31:24

It might be Keep going Weeping , Weeped , Wept . I don't know . You know this is correct me . I'm going to ask weeped or wept .

Justin 31:36

Wept is the past tense and past participle of the word weep .

Rhett 31:41

Let's see here .

Justin 31:42

Weeped is an uneducated .

Rhett 31:45

No , I'm kidding , Is a boy from Alabama . That's what that is .

Justin 31:50

The , yeah , the the jargon Alabamians use for the word wept .

Rhett 31:55

Oh man , you talk about me in in today conversations . If you guys could have just heard some of the stuff we were saying in the kitchen earlier , I was like that makes no sense .

Justin 32:07

We kept talking to each other . It's horrible . You done good go . No , you gone , good go . I will gone , good go . We did , but we knew what we were saying .

Rhett 32:16

So the point of communication is that you're following along and you're connecting .

Justin 32:20

It doesn't matter what kind of words you use , so , jesus ?

Rhett 32:23

weeped , jesus weeped . No , but Jesus wept , so he knew what it would like to be human . And I'm just saying that it's okay , like we should grieve with those who grieve . I think we miss that . You know , mourn with those who mourn , rejoice with those who rejoice , and we cannot Christianese away our emotions , and I don't know how we got on this , bro , but I think it's good , because somebody obviously needs to hear this as much as we do too . But you're right , like lamenting , I think that's how we got to it we were talking about David and writing .

Justin 32:52

When we listen back , it will all make sense , because , after all , this is the episode , about nothing .

Rhett 33:01

Not to say that the spiritual truth we're talking about is nothing , because that's not the truth .

Justin 33:06

Sometimes the greatest something comes from the episode about nothing . We'll see you next time .

Rhett 33:17

Oh , come on man . That's not how we end it , as

The Episode About Nothing

Rhett 33:22

Justin does the visual like and cut on man . That's not how we end it , as Justin does the visual like and cut no man that was good . Yeah . Oh , you thought you really want to end it right there , yeah .

Justin 33:32

Thank you for listening to Armchair Authentic with Rhett and Justin . We had a great time with you today in the new Armchair Authentic studios . But hey , seriously , we would love to hear from you and we're so thankful that you're on this journey with us Any content , any discussions that you'd like to talk about in upcoming episodes . Send us an email . Info at armchairauthenticcom . Remember it can be an episode about nothing . See you soon .